This relates to testing and, more particularly, to testing of electronic device structures.
Electronic devices such as computers, cellular telephones, music players, and other electronic equipment are often provided with wireless communications circuitry. In a typical configuration, the wireless communications circuitry includes a radio-frequency transceiver, a transceiver matching circuit, an antenna matching circuit, a switch connector, and an antenna connector each of which is mounted on a printed circuit board. The wireless communications circuitry also includes an antenna. The antenna includes an antenna resonating element that is coupled to the transceiver through the antenna connector or other coupling mechanism (i.e., via a screw or a spring).
The switch connector is connected between the transceiver and the antenna resonating element. During normal device operation, the switch connector serves to electrically connect the transceiver to the antenna resonating element so that radio-frequency signals can be conveyed between the transceiver and the antenna. During production testing, a radio-frequency test probe is mated with the switch connector to decouple the antenna from the transceiver during conducted test of the transceiver. The antenna resonating element is typically decoupled from the printed circuit board during conducted test. The test probe is connected to a test box such as a vector network analyzer through a coaxial cable. Radio-frequency test signals can be conveyed between the vector network analyzer and the transceiver when performing desired radio-frequency testing and calibration operations.
To satisfy consumer demand for small form factor wireless devices, manufacturers are continually striving to implement wireless communications components using compact structures. As device size continues to decrease, there may be insufficient space for the placement of the switch connector on the printed circuit board. To test the transceiver in the absence of the switch connector, the transceiver may be accessed via the antenna connector (with the antenna disconnected from the printed circuit board). If, however, the antenna resonating element is decoupled from the antenna connector and the antenna matching circuit is connected in series between the transceiver and the antenna connector on the printed circuit board, the test probe connected to the antenna connector will not see a 50 ohm impedance looking toward the transceiver.
In view of these considerations, it would be desirable to provide improved ways for testing wireless transceiver circuitry.